NO. R-261. House concurrent resolution commemorating the
history of the town of Sterling.

(H.C.R.161)

Offered by: Representatives Nease of
Johnson, Marron of Stowe, Martin of Wolcott, Smith of Morristown and Westman of
Cambridge.

Offered by: Senator
Bartlett of Lamoille District.

Whereas, on
Monday, February 25, 1782, the General Assembly resolved:

“That there be and
hereby is granted unto Genl Saml Fletcher, Col Joseph Reed and Compy being
sixty five in number a township of land containing the quantity of six miles
square, situate and lying in this State, bounded as follows, viz – Southward of
Fletcher and Northward of Mansfield – And the Governor and Council are hereby
requested, as soon as the Surveyor Genl can make out a proper survey of said
township, to make out a Charter of Incorporation of said township, by the name
of Sterling unto the said Fletcher, Reed and Company under such restrictions,
reservations and for such fees as they shall judge best,” and

Whereas,
after over two decades of patient waiting, on October 18, 1805, while the
governor and council were meeting in Danville, Governor Isaac Tichenor granted
a charter to the Honorable Samuel Safford and 63 of his associates, among whom
was the governor himself and Ira Allen, for the incorporation of the township
of Sterling whose boundaries began “at a beach tree in the northwesterly Corner
of Stow, marked ‘August 17, 1786’,” with a land area of twenty three thousand
and forty acres, and

Whereas,
the charter provided for the customary reserved rights or shares for a minister
of the gospel, the local ministry, a college located within the state, county
grammar schools, and one or more English schools to be located within the town,
and

Whereas, on
March 1, 1806, Robert Balch Esq. of Johnson convened the historic and brief
first Sterling town meeting, and he administered the freeman’s oath to the 10
pioneers in attendance, including George Kempfield, Peter, William, and Frances
McOlister, Augustus Young, David Cornell, Moses Vilas, George Hendrick, George
Gragg, and Reuben Dike, most of whom were patriotic veterans of the American
Revolution, and

Whereas,
Sterling’s geographic boundaries proved vulnerable to legislative amendment,
and on October 30, 1828, the General Assembly adopted Act 24 annexing a
mountainous section, beginning at the southwesterly corner of the boundary, and
including Smuggler’s Notch, to the town of Cambridge, and

Whereas,
Act 24 foreshadowed Sterling’s ultimate destiny as a dissolved municipality,
and on November 14, 1855, the General Assembly adopted Act 59, “An Act to
Divide the Town of Sterling into Three Parts and to Annex One Part to Johnson,
One Part to Morristown, and One Part to Stowe,” and

Whereas,
the final Sterling town meeting was a sad but memorable occasion at which the
55 freemen present closed the record books of the community for the final time,
and

Whereas,
the town of Sterling will be revived, if only for a day, on Saturday, October
1, 2005, when the residents of the four towns into which it was divided convene
a commemorative Sterling town meeting as the opening event of a daylong
celebration of the town’s 200th birthday and 150th passing from the pages of
Vermont’s gazetteers, now therefore be it

Resolved by the
Senate and House of Representatives:

That the General
Assembly joins with the citizens of Cambridge, Johnson, Morristown, and Stowe
in commemorating the unusual and brief history of Sterling town, which though
dissolved legislatively, is still remembered fondly for its place in the
history of Lamoille County, and be it further

Resolved:
That the secretary of state be directed to send a copy of this resolution to
Deanna French in Johnson and to the town clerks of Cambridge, Johnson, Morristown,
and Stowe.